Sacramento Ballet opens its 2026–27 season this month with three performances that put a Beatles encore inside a Balanchine meditation. The program is called Long & Winding Road, and it runs October 23 through 25 at The Sofia—the ballroom inside B Street Theatre on Capitol Avenue—before the company turns its full attention to the Nutcracker in December.
For Sacramento arts-goers who want something substantial before the holiday crush arrives, this is the one. Three pieces, two intermissions, about two hours, and a closer that plays Beatles songs through a Baroque orchestral filter.
What the Program Is
Long & Winding Road is the season-opening program in Sacramento Ballet’s Legacy in Motion banner for 2026–27. It brings together three works that span decades of contemporary classical ballet, anchored by George Balanchine at one end and a Beatles tribute at the other.
The Four Temperaments opens the evening. Choreographed by Balanchine to a commissioned Paul Hindemith score, this 1946 work is considered one of his defining pieces—cool, geometric, built on the four medieval temperaments of melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic, and choleric. Sacramento Ballet describes it as having “cool, geometric brilliance.” It is classical technique stripped of ornament, and it tends to hold the room in a particular kind of quiet.
Hearts by Sacramento Ballet company member Julia Feldman is the middle work. Feldman choreographed this kaleidoscopic ensemble piece to a minimal score, and it has the quality of a study in motion—dancers in relationship to each other rather than to a narrative. Feldman performing her own choreography makes this an inside look at the company itself.
The Long and Winding Road closes the program and gives the evening its name. Stanton Welch’s choreography sets Beatles hits in a Baroque orchestral arrangement—familiar melodies in an unfamiliar formal dress. It is the piece most likely to stay with an audience leaving The Sofia at night. Welch is the artistic director of Houston Ballet, and his Sacramento appearances are periodic enough that this is worth noting.
The Venue: The Sofia
The Sofia is the performance space inside B Street Theatre at 2700 Capitol Ave in Sacramento’s Midtown neighborhood. It is not a large venue—B Street’s ballroom is intimate by design, which means the dance is close and the sight lines are good from most seats. Street parking is available on Capitol and the surrounding blocks, and the surrounding neighborhood has no shortage of dinner options before the show.
This is the same venue where the company regularly presents chamber-scale productions outside of its Nutcracker run at Crest Theatre in December. If the Nutcracker is where Sacramento Ballet draws its largest audience, season-opener programs like Long & Winding Road are where the company’s artistic identity becomes clearest.
Who This Is For
Anyone with a passing interest in dance who has not seen contemporary ballet in Sacramento should consider this the threshold event. The program is not built around a story—it is pure movement and music—which makes it more accessible, not less. The Beatles closer, in particular, gives the evening a recognizable musical hook.
It is also a legitimate date night option, an alternative to the city’s concert calendar in late October, and a way to see Sacramento Ballet before the season fills up with Nutcracker traffic. The Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and the B Street Theatre holiday shows follow later in the season. Long & Winding Road is the opener.
The Details
- Performances: Friday, October 23 at 7:30 PM; Saturday, October 24 at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM; Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 PM
- Venue: The Sofia, Home of B Street Theatre, 2700 Capitol Ave, Sacramento, CA 95816
- Duration: Approximately 2 hours with two 15-minute intermissions
- Tickets: Available at purchase.sacballet.org or by calling the Sacramento Ballet box office at (916) 552-5810. Box office hours are Monday–Friday 10 AM–5 PM and Saturday 10 AM–2 PM.
- Parking: Street parking on Capitol Ave and surrounding Midtown blocks. No dedicated lot; arrive early on weekend evenings.
Bottom Line
Sacramento Ballet’s Long & Winding Road is a three-piece fall program that holds together better than most season openers—Balanchine’s geometric formalism, a chamber-scale new work, and a Beatles tribute that earns its place on the same bill. Four performances over a weekend at The Sofia in Midtown. If October in Sacramento still has room on the calendar, this belongs on it.
